10ers4life

its pretty new, i saw it a couple of months ago on the XL site, XL omnivest

There is a big difference -- bigger than people may realize. Some years ago Pearl switched from birch to maple as the wood of which their drums are constructed. Yamaha remains birch. Drum shells are made of several plies bent and then glued together. Which wood is better? It's a matter of taste. The same theories and properties used to evaluate drum sounds in the world of drum sets apply to marching percussion. In general, maple is considered a slightly more premium grade of wood. It is harder than birch and yields more overtones and a wider range of dynamics. Birch is known for having far fewer overtones, less in the way of mid-range frequencies, and excellent projection. When Pearl switched to maple I was skeptical it could work on the field. I didn't think they would project as well and that it would be more difficult to control their sound. In some respects I think these situations do hold true when compared with birch. It's just a matter of learning how to work with them. The result is that, in general, when you listen to corps using Pearl, the sound will be a little on the rounder side and will resonate more (which on an open field doesn't matter a whole lot, but still affects the particular sound). By contrast the Yamaha birch shells will be a little flatter, wetter, and punchier. It's interesting: as a drummer I have long had a preference for birch toms because of their punchier, more controlled sound. But I prefer maple bass drums because that is where I want the rounder, more resonant sound. Yamaha has cleverly addressed the problem of the too-flat-sounding bass drum by creating a mixture of birch and mahogany plies on their bass drums. Brilliant thinking. Mahogany is more similar to maple in many respects, but darker. I hope Madison stays with Yamaha because it is the sound I prefer. But Pearl makes one mean bass drum with those maple shells -- just check out any corps using them. It would be something else to hear the Cavaliers do their walk beat on Pearl Drums (sorry Yamaha, still love ya). Lastly I would like to say that tonal differences between these two wood types can be lessened through various tuning, tensioning, and dampening techniques. But I personally believe the differences are significant enough that if I were marching, a corps' use of birch tenors would be an important factor to me in my search for a corps. In other words, I'd probably prefer a Yamaha corps. But that's just my own preference. Both companies are tops in quality as far as I'm concerned. Pearl's main series Championship series has always been maple, with the exception of the CSX snare drum, but that was a non free floating drum that was only in production for a few years, tenors and bass were made with maple as far back as i can remember atleast until 86, i ve'seen a few drums from 86 and they all had "all maple wood" on the logo badge. the lower price Competitor series is made out of birch. but that series is for junior high, h.s. with a budget in mind.

actually i think you are talking about the year they marched half Blackmax and half Falam IIs, i pretty sure it was 99.

from the ppl i know, Cadets deal with Yamaha is marching drums every 2 years, same as everybody elses with Yamaha, and actually they are not selling the battery. just pit and latin percussion. the reason why they droped Pearl was to get a full sponsorship with Yamaha, drums, mallets, horns, for all YEA corps. Pearl doesn't make horns (they do make flutes though) so the sponsorship was dropped after 2000.

yeah the battery this year was new, the drums go back to Yamaha after 2 seasons, and Yamaha sells them through dealers. but i think the pit equipment and brass the corps buy, which is why they sell them after a year or 2.

If anyone has seen Phantom's lines from the early 80s, they had a strip cutaway from their snares' shells, and boy were they loud. These drums were not "free floating" so the lugs were what held it together, I guess. Would such a thing be possible with today's snares? I'd love to hear that LOUD snare sound again.[ those drums were called slotted snare drums, Phantom actually used free floaters with the slots in them in 91, nobody has used them since, although something that is gaining popularity is adding port holes to the drums, especially with spock drums, some of the early 80 snare lines used to use 2 inch holes around the middle of the snare drum to help with projection. it would be nice to see the slotted drums make a come back, some new stuff coming on the market is the top snares, and the prototypes that SCV used with the experimental venting system, the drums had slots cut in the stress ring on top and on the bottom of the shell, and a lever controled the opening and closing, the thought being to restrict the air flow in softer passages and to max it on the louder ones, although i heard the drums didn't function as planed but i guess Pearl had enough of success to keep the trying.

it all depends on the drum companys, no drum company will sell straight to the customer, you have to go through a dealer. a couple yaers ago i was interested in BD tenors from 99, the Yamaha rep told me they don't break up sets, now Pearl on ther other will break up sets, they use Forks drum closet in Tenn. not sure what Dynasty and Premier does, but occasionaly Columbus Percussion will set a set to a school and have a few drums left over(usually snares) then they sell them on ebay. e-mail the drum companys and ask.

another great Mylar head besides the Marathon, was the old Pearl CC, the ones with the gold flesh hoop, pretty much the same as the marathon execpt it didn't have the black ring around the center dot. but the heads took a beating and sounded great. as far as Dynasty drums being too articulite, that is in their tuning, BD removes some guts from the snares (as do many corps) to keep from being too articulite.

i haven't auditioned but some of my students have, as far as i know you can audition for a specific corps, or you can audition and the staff will place you were they feel you will best work out. could be wrong but thats how it was explained to me.

imo, the 8 inch drum is too close, in pitch, to the snare voice, the larger set up is more balanced in the choir of the battery voices. as far as using it as a spock, tried it and it didn't work alone, not enough projection (even drilled 2" projection holes in it)a 6, 8 combo sounds great, at least it does with BD this year, but i'm still sticken with the six pack.